VirginiaJohnson

Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary

Former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks

Virginia Johnson served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks from January 2017 to July 2017. As principal deputy, Johnson assisted the assistant secretary whose job it is to “provid[e] policy guidance and direction for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Park Service” and who also “has the direct responsibility for programs associated with the management and conservation of natural resources.”

Former Interior employee Virginia Johnson began her career in 1987, as an attorney at D.C. law firm, while working as an adjunct professor at Georgetown. Starting in 1996, she worked in a “variety of counselor roles” on Capitol Hill, including working as counsel on the House Natural Resources Committee. In 2004, Johnson went back to North Carolina to run for Congress, but after losing, she returned through D.C.’s revolving door as a lobbyist for the American Red Cross. In 2006, she returned to work for the federal government at the Department of Defense under the Bush administration and then became Rep. Dan Benishek’s Chief of Staff. Most recently, Johnson worked for North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, where she “lead North Carolina’s federal relations office, [and served] as the governor’s chief advocate in Washington, D.C.”